Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Hi everyone
Our move is getting closer. Just 7 weeks to go now. We have found a lovely house in Summit NJ and signed the lease. We are in NJ for half term so will go shopping and exploring. We will have about 4 weeks before our furniture arrives in NJ so we will need to buy some basic stuff to Get us through. We won't have a car to start but can hire a car or take taxis. I'm looking for local knowledge/ advice of where to shop to get the best deals on things like TVs, a k-cup or Nespresso coffee machine (soooo important!!), blow up beds and pots and pans to
Get us through. And also where the nearest supermarket would be. The kids will be going to Lincoln-Hubbard and Wilson Primary Centre - does anyone have kids at these schools? And also any suggestions for car companies?
Thanks so much!!after all the wobbles I'm feeling excited now and I've had so
Much great advice on here so thank you!

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Others will come along with advice on where to shop more locally perhaps..
Blow up beds - Walmart. loads of choice and best prices around.

Nespresso machine and other small household appliances - bedbathandbeyond or Costco. Both have excellent return policies - costco basically no time limit if they break or stop working and Bedbathandbeyond almost as good provided you keep the receipt. I've been here for 3.5 years now and for some reason electrical appliances don't seem to last. Bedbathandbeyond often have money off coupons which can be used online or in the store.

I went to Ikea for pots/pans/cutlery etc to last me through the 8 weeks before our furniture arrived. Some of it is still going strong! Otherwise walmart will have ok stuff meant to be temporary.

Bring your own bedlinen at least for the kids, it really helped my kids that although everything else was stranges they still had their own pillow cases and duvets. and teddies....

Car companies - no USA credit history? This will mean it is almost impossible and if not, very expensive to lease or buy a car here in the USA. I used International Autosource to get one and can highly recommend them You must do it before you leave the UK though, so get on to this asap. Expatride is another company that people I know have used. In the USA, your choice may be limited to VW/Audi or Mazda, both of whom have expatriate programmes. Even so, I would not advise you to leave this until you arrive....

schools. Check the vaccinations requirements for the kids' schools. Get medical records from your GP for the whole family if you can, or at least vaccination records as you will be required to prove what they've had. If there are vaccinations that you need to get done for school, personally I would get them done before you leave the UK. It's one less thing to bother with once you arrive and have your hands full in a strange place; the kids will have it done by someone they know and imo vaccinations are not something kids like to have (!!) and it's better to get it done whilst they are still excited about the move and not leave it until they also have the stress of dealing with everything that's new. I'd also like to point out that they are vaccines and adding a stressed kid onto that is perhaps not a good idea.

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Amazon for almost everything - also solves the problem of hauling stuff home if you don't have a car. You can get a decent 50"+ TV for $500, and a 4k 50"+ TV for a few hundred dollars more.

We used International Autosource and I recommend them frequently. Having a car on US credit terms will help kick start your US credit history, and you will have so much else to do when you get here, it us great to be able to cross "buy car" off your list of things to do before you even arrive. :)

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

On the bed bath and beyond front I'd recommend signing up for emails now.

They continuously send out coupons and offers. The store in comparison is expensive without them.

We got some good deals on bed sets from JCPenney online.

Also, Amazon has everything on 2 day delivery.

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

I would NOT recommend Amazon for household stuff.

First off, returns policy is limited. If the stuff is faulty, then ok you get free returns. However, if you get something and don't like it, it doesn't work they way you thought, doesn't do what you thought then you are on the hook for postage and a percentage off the price you paid. I recently bought a chimney balloon - right size etc - but the position of the damper in my fireplace meant it was never going to fit. It cost me $75 to buy it but I only got $60 refunded and it cost me $15 to send it back. Not something I would have been able to figure out beforehand cost me $30. If I'd ordered the same item from Home Depot I would have taken it back to the store and got a full refund.....

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

I'm surprised. Was it fulfilled by Amazon or was it a private seller?

I returned a knife that was not sharp and was able to print a free shipping label online.

They even refunded the money the day I shipped it, before it reached them!

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

That sounds like a pretty fringe example of a household purchase! :lol:

FWIW We have made countless purchases from Amazon over the past 5+ years, probably literally an average of one item per week (until we got Amazon Prime, often grouped in purchaes of 2-3 items to get free shipping), and I can't recall ever buying anything that was a complete failure or not fit for the purpose, and I have bought some "outlier items" myself.

Given the review feature for Amazon and other on-line retailers, you can get a pretty good feel for the quality and suitability of whatever you're looking at. My usual rule of thumb is to look for items with around 90% of ratings 5 or 4, then sample the rating 1 reviews to confirm that they bought something that obviously wasn't the right product for them or they didn't know how to use it. :lol: We have never bought a pig in a poke. :)

One tip: even on Amazon, if something is suspiciously cheap, there is probably a reason for that! :nod:

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

The knife was faulty so yes, you got a refund....

I don't really want to get into a p***sing contest about amazon. I have my reservations and I passed them on. However, bedbathandbeyond and costco are routinely named as having the best returns policy.

Target is pretty good for household knickknacks, toiletries and kids clothes. But I wouldn't buy any electronics from them. Returns policy stinks. As does Bestbuy.

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Geez... It's like treading on bloody egg shells sometimes here. :eek:

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

huh?
time of the month, Tom169?

I thought I was being very respectful. You have your opinion, I have mine etc.

Meanwhile, I'm happy because I bought a vornado heater November 2015, which stopped working last week. Took it back to Bedbathandbeyond with the receipt and they immediately swapped it out for the newer model which was cheaper so I got a refund. Tada!!

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

I have had some problems over the years with Amazon purchases -- not particularly that the item was bad, but most recently with being sent the wrong item. Although it all worked out in the end and I got every cent back, it did involve a lot of emailing back and forth, and a trip to the post office (which is an out of the way drive for me). I was not provided with a prepaid slip and the amount they credited me for postage was not nearly enough. I told them what it did cost and got the money back, but it was all a nuisance. For this reason, I would be very cautious about purchasing a large household item that might be a real performance to send back if there was a problem. As others have said, the liberal return policy at Costco makes that a great place to buy large-ticket items.

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Ah yes. Mrs P was sent what appeared to be someone else's order once - we were due a package, but what was in the box wasn't her order. :( ... But still a very rare occurrence, and like PF ordering an esoteric item that turned out to be not the right size, hardly a reason to throw the Amazon baby out with the bathwater!

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Wal-Mart is not a big hit in many of the tri-state areas of NY, NJ, CT. Frankly, I found bath bath and beyond to expensive for most items, especially those that are only going to be used occasionally. Have always found Target to be a much better quality then Wal-Mart even down here in the blooming south where WM rules supreme. Did buy a nice Visio 50" tellie before Christmas for under $400 at WM. In NJ you will find you have more Sam's Clubs than Costco and most areas now have BJ's. I'm not familiar with BJ, which is another warehouse bulk buy store. Sam's Club requires, or did years ago, that membership required a Discover credit card. Costco lets anyone join as long as they can pay the membership fee. We don't have Costco down in the South, only Sam's :(

IKEA is not bad and is appears from posts over the last 18 years to be a favorite with the Brits/Europeans. Personally, I was never impressed with them. There is a huge one in Elizabeth, NJ right off the New Jersey Turnpike.

If you are bringing your own mattresses be sure to stock up on linens as the sizes are different here in the US. If you are buying mattresses here in the US then a good place for linens would be Sam's, BB&B, Sears or JC Penney. I only purchase 800 count and above. I like the silky feel of the high count linen. Also if you are bringing comforters or feather beds, buy the duvets before you leave as again the sizes are different.

Look to see if you a store called Amazing Savings close by. They are an upscale Dollar Store but the quality of cutlery, pots, pans, drinking glasses, etc.

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

The problem I found with a lot of TV's that Walmart sell when I was looking for a TV, is that while they are well known brands they are often, but not always, lower spec models, often with a lower refresh rate.

That said, I did buy one TV in Walmart, and found that I could buy it on-line, and select the "pick up in store" option and paid $50 less than if I had just walked into the same store and taken it to the sales desk. :blink: :rofl:

Re: Setting up home in Summit NJ
 

Nespresso machines (pretty sure they are a fixed price everywhere): Macy's and Bloomingdales at the Short Hills Mall, 5 mins from Summit. I buy the Nespresso capsules at Bloomingdales:

Short Hills (also furniture/household items at Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware in addition to Macys)

Supermarkets: Kings at the border of New Providence (Springfield Ave) and another one in Short Hills:

Where Inspiration Strikes| Kings Food Markets

Or

ShopRite (border of Springfield/Summit/Short Hills)

Or: www.peapod.com (grocery delivery, similar to Tesco/Sainsbury's)

You could also go to IKEA (opposite the runway at Newark Airport....good for plane spotting from the cafe :) ) and there is also a big mall a 2 minute drive from IKEA at 'The Mills at Jersey Gardens' Simon (Has a Marshalls, similar to TJ Maxx and a Bed, Bath Beyond). Sales Taxes at IKEA and this mall only 3.5%).

Avoid Route 22 - terrifying for new drivers in the US in an unfamiliar left hand drive car; long strip of 2 parallel sets of three lanes either side of a central island *but* you have to do U Turns from and merge into the 'fast lanes' but the merging lanes are tiny and you get cars cutting right in front of you to take their exit and jaywalkers too as there are no footpaths or pedestrian bridges. Lots of accidents and many distractions from billboards. Fast food restaurants and shops in the central reservation too, yet it is a major highway with lots of traffic! All the same shops are on Route 10 at East Hanover and Whippany....just take the JFK Parkway next to the Short Hills Mall, it's approx 8-10 minute drive and much safer for drivers. I know people who actually refuse to drive on Rt 22. New Jersey drivers are famous for being terrible drivers.....you will soon realise when you take your driving test lol!

Btw; you *will* have to do a theory and a practical test. It only takes 10 mins on the practical test, but you won't be able to buy or lease a car and register it in NJ without a New Jersey DL.